STANFORD, Calif. — Despite a big comeback effort in Maples Pavilion, the Pepperdine women's volleyball team was felled in four sets by #4 national seed Stanford on Friday night, ending a strong 2022 campaign in the NCAA first round.
After a slow start dropping the first two sets 25-11, 25-18 to the Cardinal (25-4), the Waves (19-11) started to rally, commanding the third set with a 25-18 win to make things interesting. Pepperdine had an advantage late in the fourth set as well, but eventually fell 25-20 to end the match and bow out of the tournament.
BIG WAVES
Isabel Zelaya (Tomball, Texas/Concordia Lutheran HS): 32 assists, 10 digs, 3 kills, 2 blocks
Meg Brown (Santa Ana, Calif./Mater Dei HS): 10 kills, .320 hitting %, 5 blocks, 1 ace
Grace Chillingworth (Tustin, Calif./Foothill HS): 9 kills, 4 digs
Emily Hellmuth (Dallas, Texas/Highland Park HS): 6 kills, 3 blocks, 1 ace
Vanessa Polk (Saint Louis, Mo./John Burroughs HS): 8 kills, .350 hitting %, 3 blocks
Riley Patterson (Sonora, Calif./Sonora HS/Pacific): 8 digs
Emma Ammerman (Parker, Colo./Chaparral HS): 9 kills, .350 hitting %, 3 blocks (1 solo)
WAVES VS. CARDINAL
Stanford led the match with 62 kills on a .377 hitting percentage, while Pepperdine hit for 45 kills on a .200 clip. The opposition had a slight edge defensively with 10.0 blocks to the Waves 9.0, but also led by a larger margin, 53 to 37 in digs.
PEPPERDINE ATTACK BY SET
Set K E TA Pct
1 7 6 36 .028
2 10 5 26 .192
3 17 3 33 .424
4 11 4 40 .175
TTL 45 18 135 .200
STANFORD ATTACK BY SET
Set K E TA Pct
1 15 2 27 .481
2 17 5 26 .462
3 14 4 32 .312
4 16 5 37 .297
TTL 623 16 122 .377
PLAY-BY-PLAY
Stanford came out swinging to open the match and after block solo from the Waves'
Emma Ammerman, collected on a 9-0 run to pull ahead 10-2. Pepperdine earned a few solid points throughout the set, but the damage was done and the opposition came away with a 25-11 win.
The second set was much tighter from start to finish, as the two teams worked point-for-point early on. Kills from
Vanessa Polk and a big block from
Meg Brown and
Emily Hellmuth helped the squad to an 8-8 tied score. More smashes from Hellmuth and
Grace Chillingworth kept things close, as well as another block from Brown and Ammerman, but after a 12-12 tie Stanford started to pull ahead. Gaining momentum with the home advantage, the Cardinal took a 25-18 set win to lead the match by two sets.
Set three told a different tale however, as the Waves battled throughout, beginning with kills from Ammerman and Chillingworth and an ace from Hellmuth for the 5-4 lead. The opposition pulled ahead with a two-point lead shortly after, but a block from Polk and Hellmuth, followed by back-to-back kills from the same pair and an ace from Brown pushed the Waves to a 12-8 advantage. It would be a lead Pepperdine would build off through the remainder of the set, as more smashes from Ammerman and Chillingworth extended the lead to six, 18-12. Though the Cardinal came within four at the 21-17 mark, a 4-1 run with a block from Ammerman, Polk and multiple kills from Hellmuth ended the set 25-18 and forced a fourth.
After gaining momentum in the previous set, the Waves fell behind by four-points at the 12-8 mark. Though it wouldn't take long for the squad to counter and after a 14-10 deficit, back-to-back blocks from Brown with either Hellmuth or Chillingworth, refueled the energy in Maples towards a 16-16 tied score. The excitement was short-lived, though, as Stanford buckled down and put down the final points for a 25-20 set win and the four-set victory.
WAVES TALK ABOUT 2022 SEASON
FOLLOW
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